Maintenance of justice, administrative rationality and “State reason” in the Portuguese Empire, 18th century: the management of Gomes Freire de Andrada, Rio de Janeiro and south-central Portugal

Abstract

The article intends to analyze the concern with the maintenance of justice, the implementation of a greater administrative rationality and the practice of a “reason of State” in the Portuguese Empire of the 17th century. For that, we will start from a specific case study: the government of Gomes Freire de Andrada, in the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro and in the south-central of Portuguese America, between 1733 and 1763.